Tame Impala @ RAC Arena
w/ Genesis Owusu, Sycco
Saturday, October 29, 2022
It’s been over two years in the making, but Tame Impala have finally landed on home turf. It was a rapturous homecoming, as Western Australia’s biggest musical export touched down at RAC Arena for the final leg of a their 2022 tour. Though forever humble, Kevin Parker and his merry crew are an internationally beloved psych rock juggernaut, and they brought a show of global proportions with them to RAC Arena.
Supporting them were two big Australian acts that more than lived up to the billing. Sycco opened as punters filled into the arena and they impressed. Sycco is the moniker for singer-songwriter Sasha McLeod, who has been making waves the last few years with her brand of R’n’B tinged pop. With the flexibility of a backing band, McLeod was given room to stretch out. Sycco opened with a minimal electronic sound driven by drums and synth pads. However, as opener Wait What progressed the band started flexing their chops.
The bass and guitar work was elastic and busy and drumming skittish as the artist’s jazz influences became more apparent. The more metronomic Superstar was an amplified take on the original which swelled up to euphoric heights. This was the theme of the set, as McLeod translated her laidback tunes into bombastic live numbers. The more spacious Germs, with its blasts of reverbed guitar and minimal drum-and-vocals chorus, was a highlight. The closing one-two punch of hits Ripple and Dribble spoke for themselves, Dribble especially reaching for those cathartic highs once more and bringing the set to a satisfying close.
Next up came Genesis Owusu, an artist who needs little introduction and would have been a headlining act on any other night. With an ARIA Award-winning album worth of material under his belt (and one our albums of 2021), Owusu certainly wasn’t short of tunes. This night he proved he wasn’t short of moves either, in a theatrical and excellently choreographed performance. Owusu told a story through costuming and movement. He came onstage hoisted by three dancers, resembling some kind of mythical four-legged creature. Once he hit the ground though, his own legs did the talking to the frantic grooves of The Other Black Dog. With both an excellent rap flow and a sense of rhythm, Owusu channeled Michael Jackson by way of Tyler the Creator.
The early 80s R’n’B of classic single WUTD had Owusu settling into a very appropriate red leather one-piece and giving the late Prince a run for his money. On Waitin’ on Ya he showcased some awesome MJ-inspired moves and built up a sense of sensual drama. GTFO had the crowd singing along as he was hoisted up by his backup dancers for the song finale like an R’n’B Jesus. This was followed by newborn single Get Inspired which mined the same frantic energy as the opener. It was a huge dance number with some tight choreography between Owusu and his backup dancers. Owusu had excellent rapport with the crowd throughout, humble yet with tongue also firmly planted in cheek. Come time for closer Don’t Need You, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
Where Owusu wowed through his costuming and movement, Tame Impala took the opposite tack. Kevin Parker and friends came out dressed casually in jeans shirts and sneakers, and they stayed largely static on stage throughout focussed on their instruments. Thankfully they had two aces up their sleeve: a set of classic tracks and a world-class stage and light show.
One of the most striking examples of the latter was their entrance, which was kicked off by an unforgettable sequence projected on a back screen which would play host to a range of haunting and psychedelic imagery throughout the night. A scientist in a white coat painted an alternate science fiction reality in which Time Therapy was administered by future big pharma players AionWell corporation. Their drug Rushium evidently slowed time to a crawl as the narrator herself gradually grinded to a snail’s pace, vocals stretching and the visuals fizzing in and out of existence. Rushium sits well against the concept of Tame’s 2020 Slow Rush LP, whose sentimental themes of time and aging were evident in the projected imagery across the night. On this occasion though Rushium may have been confused with bad acid in what was a seriously unnerving intro before the band dived into One More Year. It was followed by Borderline, a fan favourite which could easily have appeared toward the end of the night. However, pairing these two beautiful yet melancholy songs back-to-back was an excellent stylistic choice.
The short instrumental Nangs followed and segued into old favourite Mind Mischief. Kevin’s guitar came out in all its distorted and flangey glory, backed by some very crusty sounding drums. The screen projection featured live camera work, panning around the band as they played and filtering the footage through a series of psychedelic treatments. It was a trick that was mined multiple times throughout the show, always to splendid effect. Breathe Deeper followed, arguably Slow Rush’s best track and one whose sweet house-inflected piano rolls had the crowd clapping in unison.
Perhaps the only complaint of the night was that the vocals were buried in the mix at points, most evident on melodic tracks where the chorus didn’t cut through like it could have. It’s hard to fault Tame Impala’s performance or sound balance however. The band played tight and opted for a sound as loud and all-encompassing as the occasion required. As if to counteract it, Kevin Parker himself was as down to earth as ever, but you could see the man was humbled to be back home.
The focus was, above all, on the music and spectacle. Tracing lasers introduced the ominous intro of Posthumous Forgiveness. Its here that Tame Impala most convincingly staked the crown of the modern era Pink Floyd, and if they had a Wish You Were Here moment it was this. With Kevin’s face projected live on the back screen in black and white monochrome, the crowd whipped so many phone flashlights out that the entire arena was lit. This then gave way to the most raucous reception of the night with Elephant. Just the initial ringing distorted notes were enough for the crowd to go berserk.
The setlist’s second half saw the introduction of the infamous (and, once again, very Floydian) ring light, first premiered in Coachella in 2019. It remains as spectacular as ever – a metal dome that descends, UFO-like, during Apocalypse Dreams. It then tilted against the crowd, sending rainbow-coloured lights swirling around its perimeter into the audience before the band came on to the fanfare of Let It Happen and another Tame Impala callcard as confetti cannons cover the crowd. It was a simply epic sequence that words cannot do justice.
The pacing of the tracklist wisely did not let up, driving the crowd into a continued frenzy with hit after hit. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards segued into the chill conga-led vibes of Is It True before once again treading into epic territory with Eventually. Only 2010’s Innerspeaker deep cut Runway Houses City Clouds broke with tradition, but it was a welcome chance for Kevin to indulge in some old-school guitar histrionics as he delivered an extended Hendrixian guitar solo. New Person, Same Old Mistakes returned the dial to ‘hysteria’ and featured great live visuals of Kevin face surrounded by concentric sunshine circles.
The encore saw the band return for the inevitable The Less I Know the Better, a track needing no introduction. The imagery dissolved into blues and reds as footage of the crowd was projected onto the main screen, bringing serious warm and fuzzies. And finally the closer, and closing track of The Slow Rush, was a conceptual bow tie. One More Hour, with its huge crescendos, brought a fitting end. It would be tempting to close with a crack that ‘one more hour would have been great’, but the show ended just right. Releasing any more seretonin would have been a health hazard. This was a feast for the senses that those in attendance won’t soon forget.
MATIJA ZIVKOVIC
Photos by Linda Dunjey
